Friday, November 30th, 2012
I don't know what it was, but Friday it took all the power I had to get my butt up and go teach. Fridays are always the worst. I usually have 4 classes with an awkward 3 hour break in between. One a month I get lucky and only have 2 classes, but then other time, like next week, I'm going to have 5 classes all day. Shoot me now. Thankfully the week after I somehow only have 9 hours. I'm not quite sure how I got that lucky without having to cancel any classes. This whole week I only had 9 as well, but that was because 1 of my classes switched to being only every other week and I had to cancel my Tuesday classes to go to the OFii medical appointment.
I think maybe I have been having trouble getting motivated about teaching because I feel like the stuff I'm doing is silly and the kids don't care about. I just spent the last 2 weeks doing thanksgiving stuff and now that the holiday is over, I'm not sure what to do. I feel like most of my lessons I've made are random and not related at all to what the kids are learning or at least something they would like. I think I'm going to try and start doing more things based on what the teachers are doing in their classes. It will kind of suck since I will have to make more lessons and only get to the use the same one a couple times. But maybe doing things they have already had a little practice in will make the class go better as well.
I just did a song analyses class with my 2nd year students and it went ok. We did the Bruno Mars song Billionaire, which they liked. I did however learn that my lyric fill in the blank sheet was too hard for intermediate students. I told them they were my guinea pigs so I thanked them for helping me out and that I would make the next one less difficult. I thought it was interresting that they could understand Bruno Mars' part perfectly well and even could understand phrases, but when the part with Travie McCoy started they could barely understand single words and defiantly not phrases. I guess it's because Travie's part is more like fast talking than singing. But now I know what to fix and hopefully next time it will go better. We had to spend the whole class just filling in the blanks and having them re listen to the words multiple times. I think I'll use my current work sheets for advanced kids and then edit a different one for intermediate with only 1 or 2 words for each blank. This is why I like doing the same lesson many times. I really helps you find what works best for most students and then you can edit it accordingly. If I were going to make a lesson in this song for beginners I think I would have to stick to single words and also give them a word bank.
My Friday night was pretty tame. I knew there wouldn't be many people for dinner at the canteen so I just went out and got a kebab. I tried a new place on Rue Jeanne d'Arc called Mac Doner (I think they were going for a play in words for that name). It was OK, but so far my favorite place has been one on Rue de Bourgogne, I think it's called Funny Boys or something. After dinner I went out this Ibai for a drink with some people he works with. I think his French is getting better than mine, at least his determination to speak only French with his friends is better than mine. I had a hard time understanding everything, I think mostly because it was a little noisy and I can never understand people when there is a lot of background noise. Plus some people speaking English came in a bit later and my brain had trouble focusing on French when it kept hearing English in the back ground. But any practice is better than none. I just need to keep on trying. Maybe I should be like this one guy in my study abroad program and just refuse to speak English with people. I would ask him something in English, but he would always reply in French. I've tried it and it's hard, but not impossible. Hopefully after I move in to my new place on Monday, my host mom won't know English and I have to speak French. That would be awesome.
I got to try out my new boots I just bought with Sophie yesterday. I was happy to find they were extremely comfy and I could easily walk on the cobble stone street, where as with the others it killed by feet. I hate getting use to new shoes but these ones should be really great. I needed some new blanks ones anyway since my others i got a few years back are finally started to reach the end of their life. I can't wear them in the rain at all without getting soaked. These ones have fur on the inside, and actually have grips on the bottom so I won't fall on my ass this winter. Plus I got some awesome insoles from Foot Locker. They were pricey, but worth it. The best part was the shoes were only 27 euros. Even if they only last me for the rest of my trip they were worth it. I was convinced I could never find shoes for less than 50 euros, but Sophie knows where all the best deals are. We went to 3 different stores with great prices on Thursday. Probably all stuff from china, but Id rather get new boots ever couple years for less than have to spend over 150 euros and keep them for a long time. Styles change so much I figure it's best to get the cheaper stuff so you don't feel bad if you want something new 2 years later.
Saturday, December 1st, 2012
It's hard to believe it already December. I've been hear for 2 months now. I'm a bit sad because it seems everyone had gone to Paris for the weekend. They have their Christmas market going on and the lights are up all around the city so people wanted to welcome the Christmas season I guess with a trip there. I was hoping to go with some friends but i couldn't find someone to stay with for free of couch surfer anything, and I didn't want to just do a day trip. Since Matt is coming soon I'm trying to pinch as many pennies as I can, at least until after I start getting some money from the Caf. Matt and I will be in Paris for New Years and I'm sure there will still be lights up so we should be ok. Plus we have a Christmas market in Orleans as well and they should turn the lights on today. I should be meeting Laura tomorrow to go check everything out. But for now today will be a very lazy day. So my dad pretty much just consisted of sleeping in until 11:30, staying in my PJs until 6pm and then finally getting my lazy butt dressed to go return some DVDs and get something from the grocery for dinner.
When I was at the grocery I started getting really excited about moving into my new place on Monday. I kept seeing so many things I could finally cook since I would have access to an awesome kitchen and not have to worry about my stuff being thrown out. I can't wait to make galettes, steak haché with frits, sautéed mushrooms, and of course do lots of baking. I have been obsessed with the idea of making french madeleines, which are these light little cookie/cake things in the shape of a shell. I found an awesome recipe that I want to make with Sophie for gluten free lemon madeleines with a lavender glaze (shown right). It sounds just like something you would see in a bakery in Avignon. I don't know why but I have really been into baking lately, more than regular cooking almost. I'm really excited to be getting a great kitchen, pictures soon to come. I will also be posting all my new French recipes i learn on this blog so be on the look out. I've already got a Moroccan Couscous recipe I need to post. Not truly french, but everyone knows how to make it here. My host parents in Avignon made it all the time. Hopefully my new "landlord" (she's really more like a host mom) will be able to show me how to cook some yummy french things. On my list of things I want to learn is Beouf bourgenone, bread (the real way, not with a machine) Coq au Vin, Duck Confit, Tartiflette, some kind of fricassee (usually with chicken I hear), creme brulee, and lots of other yummy desserts. I've also got a nice long list of things to make off of pintrest if I can. I also want to show my host mom how to make some southern dishes. I know my last host parents loved the tomato soup I made. 
Sunday, December 2nd, 2012
So today was fairly eventful. I went to this Christmas market at the expo center, but it wasn't too impressive. i definantly preferred the food and wine expo more. There were way more free samples. This one didn't really have anything that interested me. But mostly today was eventful because I ended up moving in to my new place today instead of tomorrow as planned. My host mom said she had to work a lot tomorrow so today would better for her, plus she could help me bring my stuff over with her car. I didn't have quite everything packed so I just took what I could and then I'll bring the rest tomorrow. I'm living on the top floor in a nice little room. I was hoping to get the full sized bed the my host mom had but she moved it from the room I'm currently in to the bigger room since she said it took up too much room. She uses the other room as storage mostly, but if she decides to rent it I might ask her if I can have the bigger bed. At the very least I hope she'll let Matt and I use it when he comes here. I don't mind having a smaller bed for just me, but for the two of us it would be nice to sleep in the same one. I actually get the bathroom to myself because the other girl she was renting to ended up moving out. Other than that the wireless works well, and if for some reason it's not strong enough this is also a wired connection. Plus the room stays super warm do to the awesome heater. At first it took a bit for me to figure out, but now it's keeping my room nice and toasty. If this house we just closer to the center it would be perfect.
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